Governor
Sanford goes on to note, third, that REAL ID will “substantially
raise wait times at DMV offices across our state, and this will also
result in productivity losses that have not been quantified in any DHS
estimates.” Indeed, those states fully in compliance can expect
long lines; their citizens will wait sometimes for hours, and may have
to make return trips if they don’t have the correct documents
when they finally get to a clerk.

Fourth,
“REAL ID represents another step against a limited federal government.”
The biggest threat to liberty, Sanford argues correctly from history,
is “in a central government that is too powerful.” Our federal
government had clearly gotten too powerful before the 9/11 attacks,
and its power has grown by quantum leaps and bounds since then. Sanford
continues:

“REAL
ID upsets the balance of power between the federal government and the
states by coercing the states into creating a national ID system for
federal purposes. Given its requirement to board a plane or enter a
federal building, it would also change the balance of power in something
as seemingly insignificant as a visit to a member of Congress. As a
former member of the U.S. Congress, I had countless meetings with constituents
whose personal details I knew nothing about—and this was a good
thing. Their background was not the issue, my stand on a given matter
was. The First Amendment guarantees Americans the right to assemble
and petition their government, and in it there has never been a qualification
that said, ‘Only if you have a REAL ID card.’ On this, I
think it would be best to let the Founding Fathers original work stand.”

Along
these same lines, the scope of REAL ID once implemented could expand
at federal will. Sanford quotes from DHS’s final rule handed down
in January, that DHS “will continue to consider additional ways
in which a REAL ID license can or should be used and will implement
any changes to the definition of ‘official purpose’ or determinations
regarding additional uses for REAL ID.”

This
opens the door to new federal mandates regarding REAL ID that weren’t
in the REAL ID Act. Policy makers at DHS have already intimated that
a REAL ID could be required to buy cold medicine and for employment
verification—such policies could easily be expanded to include
requiring REAL ID for legal medical treatment and legal employment in
this country. REAL ID would be replacing the social security number
which itself had not been intended for most of the uses to which it
is put today.

Fifth,
Sanford observes the vulnerabilities of a “national computer network
of driver’s license databases that can be accessed by all states
and the federal government ...” dangerous because “central
depositories have never proven to be great bulwarks in the world of
security.” He observes further that “In May 2006, roughly
27 million veterans had personal information compromised when a Department
of Veterans Affairs laptop was stolen from an employee. It was later
determined that the employee violated agency policies both for storing
the information and taking the laptop.”

Just
recently, all three leading candidates for the presidency—John
McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama—had their private passport
files accessed without official authorization by State Department contract
employees. This is hard evidence of how easy it is for anyone with the
information-systems know-how to penetrate these systems. Can you really
believe your REAL ID information would be safe (particularly from low-paid,
low-echelon security bureaucrats who might believe they could profit
from stealing and then selling your data)?

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For
such reasons REAL ID increases, instead of decreases, the risk of identity
theft.

Finally,
READ ID will not protect Americans from foreign terrorists. “A
terrorist could get a passport from a third world country and travel
on it instead. Before we spend these monies, I think we should carefully
look at ways to close this and other REAL ID loopholes.” Moreover,
“in a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit case,
it was conceded that a person doesn’t need any identification
to fly, as long as they are subject to alternative screening. If a traveler
with sinister intent is determined to fly on a commercial aircraft,
I find it implausible they would go through the steps detailed in the
REAL ID, when they could get on the same plane with nothing more than
a pat-down screening.”

I
do not know whether Governor Sanford knows of an effort to give us all
national ID cards by stealth back in the 1990s—in an omnibus legislative
package Bill Clinton signed in 1996. This effectively debunks the idea
that protecting Americans from terrorism is the purpose of REAL ID.
The 1996 effort, which would have gone into effect in November 2000,
was finally repealed following an extensive grassroots campaign conducted
via the Internet. That was before 9/11, of course. The power elite has
wanted a national identification system in this country for quite some
time now, and there should have been no doubt that something like this
would emerge in the wake of 9/11. (And again, is there really any doubt
why we believe there are conspiracies—and why many people do not
believe the government’s conspiracy theory regarding those attacks?)

Governor
Sanford’s letter concludes: “[I]t is important that we …
always remember that America’s greatest homeland security rests
in liberty.”

Ah,
yes, that forgotten concept!

Interestingly,
Chertoff “responded” to Governor Sanford’s letter
by also granting South Carolina an extension the letter did not ask
for. Just as with Montana. Chertoff’s response indicated that
in his judgment, Governor Sanford indicated that South Carolina was
already taking steps toward “material compliance.” Perhaps
he did not read past the second paragraph where Sanford points out,
“[DHS] has recognized that South Carolina has coincidentally met
more than 90 percent of REAL ID’s requirements—well ahead
of the projected implementation deadlines and far in advance of many
other states. As a result of this work, we now electronically verify
social security numbers of license applicants with the Social Security
Administration; we require applicants to provide documents to verify
citizenship or show authorized presence in this country; we tie the
validity of licenses to the length of authorized stay in the U.S.; we
provide our employees with AAMVA-approved fraudulent document training;
we have a documented exceptions process; and we have now enhanced the
physical security of our field offices.”

There
is more that South Carolina has done without help from the feds, but
it does not equate to REAL ID. South Carolina had not, that is, bowed
meekly before the feds. Nor have other states; truth be known, the only
reason several of the others—Oklahoma is an example—asked
for an extension was to buy time. One suspects that Chertoff and his
minions are in denial about the rebellion occurring outside the Beltway.
Be that as it may, the ball is again in Homeland Security’s court—with
D-Day now moved safely back to May 11, 2011. (The dollar may have collapsed
by then; martial law may have been declared; the entire national landscape
may have been altered beyond recognition—but that’s another
column.)

We
are a long way from being out of the woods on this. The best thing that
could happen is for Congress to convene a special session in the near
future, put together a bill taking account of the objections to REAL
ID, and repeal this turkey before it creates havoc at DMVs over the
country as well as brings about systemic punishment for those of us
who refuse to comply. The only way to accomplish this is to elect a
Congress that is both sufficiently informed and willing to turn the
tide against REAL ID at the federal level.

I
have no doubt that otherwise, DHS will ultimately be able to force compliance.
It will get help from corporate America, especially the mass media and
financial institutions. Here is how it will work: despite the defiance
coming from both the grassroots and state governors, a majority of America’s
masses still have not heard of REAL ID. The mindset here is that what
isn’t on TV or doesn’t affect them directly, doesn’t
exist or at least is somebody else’s problem. If a given state
refuses to comply, its masses will feel blindsided when airport security
no longer accepts their driver’s licenses or social security cards
as valid for identification purposes. Corporate-owned big city newspapers
will immediately publish a stream of lead op-eds bemoaning the situation
with a “We told our Governor and state legislators to comply!”
If banks stop opening accounts, or if jobseekers can’t produce
the ID prospective employers suddenly want, the state will find itself
with a major situation on its hands.

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Here
in South Carolina, where government schools stopped teaching about the
Constitution long ago, a sizeable fraction of the public will stupidly
turn its wrath on people like Governor Sanford, on the General Assembly,
and on us “conspiracy nuts” instead of questioning the federal
government’s increasing bids for unchecked power. What? Question
the federal government? It’s the government, after all! DHS is
going to keep us safe from all those big bad terrorists, right? All
we have to do is give them more power! For part one click below.

Dr. Steven Yates
has a Ph.D. in philosophy. He is the author of two books, Civil Wrongs:
What Went Wrong With Affirmative Action (1994) and Worldviews: Christian
Theism versus Modern Materialism (2005), roughly two dozen articles and
reviews in refereed professional journals, and hundreds of opinion columns
both online and in news periodicals (he writes a regular column for the
Greenville-SC based weekly The Times Examiner).

He was involved
in the struggles against CAFTA and the FTAA, participated in a successful
citizens’ effort to have legislation passed declining to implement the
Real ID Act of 2005 in South Carolina, and was active on behalf of the
Ron Paul campaign. He has spoken to local, state-level and national groups
including the Patriot Network, the Georgia Eagle Forum, Freedom 21, and
the John Birch Society. He lives in the Greenville, South Carolina area
where he commutes between two colleges teaching philosophy and is pondering
the fate of his latest almost-completed book The Real Matrix: Fabricated
Reality in the Emerging New World Order in light of the fact that for
all practical purposes the New World Order is here and he doesn’t want
to end up a political prisoner.

“REAL ID upsets
the balance of power between the federal government and the states by
coercing the states into creating a national ID system for federal purposes.
Given its requirement to board a plane or enter a federal building, it
would also change the balance of power in something as seemingly insignificant
as a visit to a member of Congress....